There are many matrices that strategy consultants use to determine corporate positioning and strategy, examples include the Space Matrix, GE/McKinsey Matrix, TOWS Matrix, IE Matrix, Grand Strategy Matrix, BCG Growth Strategy Matrix, and the like. These are examples of frameworks that have already been developed to determine strategy at a corporate level. Of these, the GE/McKinsey Matrix is the most popular one and is often used by consultants to determine corporate strategy. Examples of these frameworks can be found in most management texts or in Harvard Business Review publications. The other most commonly used framework is the Product Life cycle.
In consulting engagements with General Electric (GE) in the 1970's, McKinsey & Company developed a nine-cell portfolio matrix as a tool for screening GE's large portfolio of strategic business units (SBUs). The GE matrix generalizes axes of a graph as “Industry Attractiveness” and “Business Unit Strength.” Industry attractiveness and business unit strength are calculated by first identifying criteria for each, determining the value of each parameter in the criteria, and multiplying that value by a weighting factor. The result is a quantitative measure of industry attractiveness and the business unit's relative performance in that industry.
Disadvantageously, the above listed methodologies are lacking with respect to telecommunication and datacommunication products and services. For example, these methodologies are used primarily to determine corporate strategy at a macro level and are not very good at defining product/service strategies. These methodologies also do not address how investments should be allocated in a product/service portfolio and they do not take into account applications addressed by the products and services. Further, these methodologies do not address when to invest in adjacent product areas to effectively ride an application life cycle and maximize the capture of customer spending. Also, these methodologies fail to take into account market maturity for the application addressed by the product. These above listed methodologies can outline a product life cycle based on history, but they provide no indication of the location within product life cycle and what is about to happen next. Such determinations are crucial for allocating investment resources to products and services.